Energy reduction in mechanical pulping

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The global demand for renewable, sustainable, climate-friendly wood pulp materials and products continues to increase. The key to meeting the global fibre demand is through high yield mechanical pulping that produces 50% more fibre than chemical processes. Canada is uniquely positioned with the abundant forests, water and electrical infrastructure required for this energy intensive industry to be successful making it a strategically important, renewable export industry. The single largest threat to this strategic industry is the cost of electrical energy consumed in the process. In BC the mechanical pulping industry consumes nearly 5 TWh/y or 10% of BC Hydro's annual production and represents 1/3 the cost of fibre production. Energy technologies are susceptible to sudden shifts. For example, the move to plug-in hybrid vehicles could quickly and dramatically alter the cost of electrical energy, making current high yield pulp production impractical. The long term survival of this manufacturing sector, which includes newsprint, light-weight coated papers, and market pulp for export into tissue and paperboard, depends on our ability to dramatically decrease the specific energy of these mechanical pulp products. To reduce the energy consumption in mechanical pulping, we have developed a university-industry collaborative research program focused on developing and demonstrating electrical energy reduction technologies, processes and strategies. This program brings together the key stakeholders to form a unique technical team of TMP mills, associated supplier industries, research institutes, universities, utilities and governments agencies. The specific objective of this proposed research program is to develop and demonstrate technologies to produce less mechanical pulp with less than 1000 kWh/t (more than a 50% energy reduction) suitable for a wide range of high quality fibre products, including communication, packaging and tissue products. This proposed program contains three themes aimed at transitioning mills to implement these new technologies and to develop optimization strategies for each sub-process. The 3 themes of the proposal are Process Optimization, Advanced Sensors and Controls, and New Product Development.